Does anyone know a hard and fast rule to eliminate chill haze? It really doesn't affect my beer but for me it is either a hit or miss. The beer looks wonderful until I put it in the refrig and my transparent golden liquid becomes translucent. I use Worflac tablets during the last 15 minutes of the boil and have a secondary fermentation.

Thank god someone is keeping the forum alive with some activity. I thought everyone left for good.

Anyway, for my last few batches I have been seriously focusing on chill haze reduction. From my limited experience on the subject, I am trying various suggestions from various sources. I am really interested in hearing from others on the forum as to which techniques affect clarity the most:

1. Step mash and include the protein rest around 122F for 30 minutes. I have really seen a difference with what is coming out of my tun and am guessing contributing a good deal in chill haze reduction.

2. Recycle the extracted wort from the tun until the wort flows very clear. The belief being to reduce as much protein before the boil.

3. Use Irish Moss or other fining agent (duh!).

4. Quickly cool the post-boil wort. Not sure how effective this one is, but have read from John Palmer's book that this is important.

5. Leave as much break material in the kettle. Minimize the break actually transferred to the primary.

6. Age longer. I have noticed that my beer clarifies with age. Also, age at near freezing temps (like a lager). Actually some ale styles such as Belgian Strong Golden and Alt dictate this by style.

Aside from the tips Cleone advises, good old cold aging does the trick for me. I'll normally cold age my ales near freezing for a month before tapping them (lagers are a bit longer). The cold causes any chill haze components to come out of suspension and gravity pulls them to the bottom. I always get crystal clear beer this way.

Hear you loud and clear regarding near-freezing aging for clarity. As I was consuming a Fuller's Pale Ale I was pondering what techiques are most common to the macrobrewing process in clarifying ales. Besides wirlpooling and filtration, do you think the macrobrewers are cold aging for clarity?

Also, I have the impression that the macrobrewers are more likely using a single infusion mash rather than a step w/ protein rest. Am I wrong in this assumption?

I opened the first bottle of my ESB not too long ago. It was crystal clear in the carboy, but man did it get cloudy in the glass! Disappointed, but it was still pretty good. I've got some sitting in the frige now; with previous brews about a month there really helped the clarity. Just remember to put enough in there so you don't drink them before they have a chance to clear I always throw one in the back everytime I take one out, that way they'll be safe (for awhile).

The next best thing to drinking a fine craft homebrew is talking about the skills and steps in its birth. I have a ale in the modified freezer right now and dropped the temp to see if that will help. Unfortunately it's a dark/ amber ale so I won't see much results but I will keep the hints next time I brew a pale lager.